A wheel assembly mounting a tire on a large vehicle, such as used in construction, is commonly formed of multiple pieces. One such piece is the annular flange which supports a side wall of the tire. The flanges, in turn, are mounted on the wheel rim. Currently, these flanges are made from flat or curved section straight bars butt welded together and then formed in a cold forming operation. The butt welds connecting the pieces to form the flange typically run radially from the inner diameter to the outer diameter of the ring relative to the rotational axis of the wheel assembly.
The present design has a number of shortcomings, including a relatively short service life for the flange and rim and excessive wear problems on the side wall of the tire, particularly when using radial tires having very flexible side walls. The use of radial tires puts greater local stresses on the flange, which generates cracks running radially near the butt welds from stress concentrations at the welds. The residual stress concentrations induced in the pieces by forming the pieces during cold forming operations create circumferential cracks about the rim from fatigue. These problems are accentuated as the flanges are typically made of low carbon steel, as are the other pieces of the wheel assembly, which creates an electrolytic corrosion action at the inner face between the side of the flange and the rim, causing excessive wear of the flange and rim. Further, the surface of the flange in contact with the tire sidewall is typically the "as rolled corner" of the raw material bars used to form it, and, as such, commonly forms a rough surface which creates excessive wear on the side wall of the tire, or even cutting of the side wall.